AT&T Causes a Delay to the Houghton Pier Project’s Time Table

HOUGHTON – The 4.9 million dollar pier project in Houghton, and funded by MEDC, may have to change schedule. Traditionally during large place making projects, like the pier, cities reach out to utility companies to make them aware of the project and to gather information on where pipes, or cables have been laid. Last year before the MEDC announcement for the project, Houghton City Manager Eric Waara reached out to every utility that could be affected by the project, to remind them of the urgency to locate their infrastructure. Dallas based AT&T being one of those.

“AT&T right now, they’re planning to bring some divers up here, at the beginning of next month, to locate those underwater canal crossings. We’re gonna have a progress meeting here, in the near future. I actually fully expect the contractors to ask for additional time. Look at that way, this is something that’s gonna cost us time and money. because of these delays with AT&T. So we’ll have to look at what our options are.” – Eric Waara, Houghton City Manager

AT&T has caused a delay in the time table for the pier project, pushing the work of locating their phone lines to sometime next month. Hopefully, as the ice thaws on the Portage Canal, the company hopes to send a team of divers to locate cables. Most important, this delay pushes the project back by a few weeks.